Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1887-05-27
"Oh what hole in the bag - sighed

hunly dSheu IOLJeTi DlhHulys he hhu u
mind 10 keep the right side of a woman
with means"
"Me !" said the old lady, with a stern
reproof in her voice and face. 'Me go to
such a place No. indeed !"
"Well, well everybody to their mind.
| like bit of fun first rate, now and then.
We go considerable first and last a body
must be amused"
80 father J" put in Mrs Potter, urged by
the whispered teasing and cross faces of
Ida and Davy, "do take them children
along Ida hasn't been nowhere since Lott
was took sick and Davys only boy. Let
him have good time while that he can
his troubles will come fast enough before
long. Now, do let 'em go!"
well, / guess they can. Lott won't
want 'em if Aunt Pratt's here"
So at night he came home with four tick
cts to the performance, a bag of peanuts
and paper of candy, and they set out to
enjoy themselves Tom had announced at
noon that he was 'goin' to take his girl.
Aunt Pratt groaned in spirit. another
hole in the bag, and big one :" she said to
herself
When would the Doctors bill and the
debts at the drug store and the grOcers ever
be paid
Aunt Pratt had always lived in the coun-
try and been honest. She had no expert
ence of the class who crowd our theatres,
minstrel shows and circuses, who buy cheap
finery and expensive, poor beer and bad
butter, but never pay their rent or lay up
one penny in all their lives.
As spring came on Aunt Pratt noticed
one day that Potter looked disguised with
his dinner and Lofty left hers untasted.
No wonder Aunt Pratt could not eat it
herself. The potatoes were poor and boiled
to a watery, insipid mass the calves liver
fried to black, leathery substance the
bread old and dry and the turnips rank
and unsavOry.
81 say, pa, exclaimed Tom 'we're all
gettin' spring poor. don't care hang
for my vittles Let's have a dozen of lag
er thatll set us all up.
SO the lager came, was used up, and an
other dozen ordered, and then another :;
but the appetites did not improve-nor the
cooking. At last the beerseller refused to
fetch more, unless what he had brought
them was paid for.
"Oh, dear oh, dear - sighed Aunt Pratt.
"What a hole in the bag ~
Next day she said to her niece, 'Lowisy,
will you let me buy and cook the dinner to
morrow! I'll make you a present of all the
vittles get, if you will"
Louisa consented much astonished, and
Aunt Pratt came back from market with
two pounds of solid beef-a coarse piece, it
is true, but cheap and fresh. She bought
few onions, a carrot, and one small stalk
of celery-the whole costing thirty six
cents. Then she prepared a stew, and,
pairing the potatoes, put them in cold wa
ter till it was time to add them the celery,
half ala
put in with the beef, which she had cut into
pieces of perhaps two inches square. Salt
and pepper were sprinkled in literally, and,
as she put her stew on before breakfast and
let it simmer all the morning, adding the
sliced potato at eleven o'clock, it was well
done by noon.
George how good the dinner smells -
calculated Tom.
Got roast turkey, Lou y inquired Pot
ter, shifting and smelling.
Even listless Lou wanted some dinner
that day the rest recovered their appetites
without any more lager
Il wish to the land you'd learn cookin
of Aunt Pratt said Potter.
II wonder if I've sewed up that hole,
thought Aunt Pratt.
But she had not Louisa was too old to
| learn new tricks, as we say about dogs
she continued to buy the best meat and
cook it in the worst way, and still the
money leaked from that hole in the bag.
"Hullo, Tom" said Potter, one Sunday
morning, as Tom sauntered into the room
with a half smoked cigar in his mouth
"ain't you toneyi Why, that cigar smelli
| like rose :"
Aunt Pratt wondered what sort of ros'
| had an odor of tobacco.
at ought to, sententiously replied Tom
Them fellers cost me five cents apiece by
the hundred"
well, can put up with my pipe so far
but you young fellows have got to have
your fling, l reckon. By'm-by you'll hav,
to fall back on brier-wood nd niger head.
"Another hole in the bag" murmureC
Aunt Potter, who had patiently darneC
Toms threadbare socks and patched hi
worn shirts for him every week for months
"Well here be !" shouted Potter, as HI
came in one Monday about 10 o'clock.
"Why, what has fetched you home 2" in
quired his wife.
ooh, we fellows have struck. Weir
goin' TO have less work and more pay
Them darned capitalists has Over-rode u
long enough we're bound to have GU
share of the dollars we make, now | tel
you Z"
For the mercy's sakes !" CALCULATED Lou
isa
where are you going to work now
dryly asked Aunt Pratt.
''Why, back again as soon as the bosse
come to terms"
But supposin' they shouldn't"
ooh, they've got to-can't lose their con
tracks, no way we've got EN- where tn
hairs short"
"But supposin' they hold out for month
time or six weeks ~
'Oh, we get 'lowanse out of the asses;
ments we amt goin to starve."
who's paying them assessments -
''The fellows that have got money lai
away they're taxed for the general good
so much a week till the strikes over"
BE you assessed y
Lord do we think I've got cent in tn
bank Four children and starvin' wages
What's three dollars day with four in tn
family, an clothes, an rent, an vittles, al
light, an fuel, an doctors, an Lord know
what all :"
"a bag with holes ~ ran through Aur
Pratt's mind as she looked back over tn
past six months.
Weeks passed on the bosses were nc
only firm, but hired other men in the stril
ers' places and went on with the contracts
Potter sulked and lounged and swore, an
made his pipe and himself daily nuisanc
in the house Before long Aunt Pratt di
covered that the assessments were decreal
ing, and, alarmed lest Potter should insi
on sharing her small property among h
; brood, on communistic principles, she gu
etly withdrew herself one day to an o.
Ladies' Home, where the payment of
small sum insured her peaceful and plea
ant home for life and from her retreat 81
gave much aid and comfort to the wome
, of the Potter family, but refused any to Il
men.
} 81 can't waste my pittance on beer al
tobacco" she said sharply and she meal
what she said When she died, her none
was all left to the Home where she lived,
endow two free admissions, the three won
) en- of the Potters to have the preference.
81 have lived, said that document, aft
the term of the bequest, ''tO see what q
, Bible meant when it says in Haggai l;B, y
eat, but we have not enough We clothe yo
but there is none warm and he that ear
eth wages, earneth wages to put into bl
, with holes > and will not leave behind II
4 any dollars to go into that bag
/ cold crank ~ said the disappointed Pc
ter, when the lawyer finished reading
"Who-Haggai y politely inquired tn
/ gentleman. Rose Terry Cooke
:
1 A good story is told of a former Dako
legislator named Wilbur f. Steele.
- seems that Steele takes no stock in womi
suffrage, except when he is obliged TO.
r one occasion woman suffrage bill was
4 NNasN g